Remembrance and repetition: The
spiritual foundations of Islamic art
Author: James Winston Morris
Persistent link: http://hdl.handle.net/2345/4139
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Boston College University Libraries.
Published in SUFI, vol. 47, pp. 15-19, Autumn 2000
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Commons "Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States" (http://
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. SUFI
James W. Morris
Remembrance
and Repetition:
Spiritual Foundations of Islamic Art
BY JAMES W. MORRIS
God is Beautiful and He loves
beauty... (Hadith, recorded by
Muslim, Ibn Maja, Tirmidhi)
he best approach to appreciating any
of the Islamic visual arts, for someone
encounteting them for the first time, is
to begin by listening attentively to the
sacred music (whether popular .or
learned) of almost any traditional Islamic culture. It might seem strange to
learn to look by listening, but Islamic art, in all its
expressions, is above all a highly refined visual music.
So if we begin to approach that art as a special sort
of visible music, we are' far more likely to understand
it on its own aesthetic terms, as it was experienced by
its otiginal creators and patrons. And at the same time
we will avoid the many extraneous aesthetic standards
and assumptions of 'representation', 'originality', 'selfexpression' and the like which modern viewers tend to
carry over unconsciously from the context of Western
(European) visual arts.
In fact the 'outsider' or naive 'beginner' in tillS
situation may be uniquely capable of seeing how the
Islamic humanities, in cultural settings extending from
West Attica to China and Indonesia, still share certain
common forms and presuppositions-aesthetic and metaphysical foundations that stand out all the more clearly
Autumn 2000
...Surely hearts find peace in
remembrance ofGod: .. .joyfUl bliss
for them, and a beautiful
returning! (Koran 13:28-29)
in contrast to the habitual assumptions of contemporary
mass culture in any part of the world. For whether it
be in the distinctive patterns of these tribal and courtly
carpets; the styles of Arabic calligraphy adapted for so
many Islamic languages; the ornamental interplay of
'arabesque' and geometric elements in all the visual
media (ceramics, wood, leather, textiles and metalwork);
the architectural layout of fountains and gardens, tombshtines, palaces, or urban markets and religious complexes; the multiple perspectives in classical schools of
miniature painting; the repertoire of symbolic themes in
mystical lyric poetry; or the intricate formulae of social
etiquette (adab), ritual and polite speech: in all of these
forms of the classical Islamic humanities, no matter what
their original culture and period, one inevitably encounters recurrent elements of repetition and 1-hythm intended to evoke an inner harmony and balance integrating and transcending the momentarily visible tensions
and emotional expressions of their constituent parts.
Uninitiated modern observers of each of these artistic
forms, of course, have often mistakenly perceived precisely these same shared aesthetic qualities and expectations as representing qualities of repetitiveness, 'formalism', 'decorative' superficiality, and an apparent lack
15
SUFI
Remembrance and Repetition: Spiritual Foundations of Islamic Art
of originality or truly 'authentic' expression. For as with
any traditional art or ritual, it is certainly true that only
long personal apprenticeship can reveal the heights of
individual creativity and mastery that can be realized
within the form.al constraints of each of those fields.
However, one essential key to penetrating this
mysterious aesthetic unity and 'musicality' of the Islamic
humanities can be found simply by asking traditional
Islamic musicians (or their audien·ce) what it is they are
actually doing. For more often than not, they would
16
describe their performance-or their listening--:-not as
'music', but rather as an act of 'intimate prayer' or
'remembrance' of God, using the central Koranic teml
dhikr. How that fundamental religious concept and its
related Koranic context actually came so thoroughly to
inspire and pervade the Islamic humanities in all their
manifold creative expressions is a story that has yet to
be written. But for our purposes here, it is sufficient to
describe as succinctly as possible the fundamental spilitual role of the Islamic humanities as dhikr-as bOtll
Issue 47
James W. Morris
cultural 'reminders' and repeated
individual 'invocations' of the archetypal divine Qualities, the 'Most
Beautiful Natnes'-within the broader
Koranic vision of human being and
the world.
o begin with, in order to grasp
the primordial 'musicality' of
Islamic art, it is essential to recall that
the Koran, both in its origins and as
it is experienced in the daily ritual
and prayer life of most Muslims
through the centuries, has always
been primarily an aural, nlusical
reality. In fact the Arabic ternl quran
originally meant 'recitation,' and
witIlin the revelations to Mu1)ammad
eventually assembled as a written
text, tIlat expression and related terms
are also applied to the divine Archetype of all revelation and creation.
In fact the most fundamental Koranic
image for God's ongoing creative
relation to tIle world is that of
Speech-and that divine Music is
said to be directly reflected in the
response of all the creatUres, even
if we too often remain spiritually
'tone-deaf to that Symphony: the
seven heavens and the eartIl, and all
who are in them, are singing His
praises: there is no tIling but that it
js singing forth with His praise-and
yet you-all do not grasp their songof-praise! (16:44).
Within that nl~taphysical context, the ultimate purpose of the
Koran-as with all the earlier divine
revelations, and with all the later
artistic attempts to furtIler that same
purpose-is simply to help 'remind'
or awaken human beings to an active
realizatjon of their unique role and
special responsibility in that larger
cosmic chorus. In' that regard, the
key Koranic root dh-k-r beautifully
expresses several equally essential
aspects of that all-encompassing
divine Concert. (Those unfamiliar
with Arabic may not know that the
consonantal roots of the Koran, like
the chords of musical leitmotifs or
traditional Chinese ideograms, typically express a broad range of polyvalent meanings and intricate semantic connections that cannot be
adequately 'translated' or othelwise
T
Autumn 2000
SUFI
reduced to written or conceptual is -'the Truly-ReaL." (41:53). Indeed
form. Thus in the prayerful re-cre- . tIlete is notIling at all that is not part
ation of the Koran, those Arabic of the 'Words' of this ongoing divine
roots are both literally and figuraConcert: "Even if all tlle trees on
tively the 'notes for each new reci- earth were pens, and the sea (were
tation and genuine realization of that ink), witIl seven more seas replacing
constantly recurring Revelation.) it, still the Words of God would not
Hence the various forms of tIle word be used up" (31:27).
dbikr may convey simultaneouslyFrom the human point of
and almost always from both the view, of course, few could argue
divine and tIle individual human witll the Koran's repeated observapoint of view-tIle related meanings tion that "no one really renlembers,
of (a) a reminder (in which sense but tIle people of Hearts" (2:269, 3:7,
the Koranic revelation itself is reetc.). In response to that more usual
peatedly called the divine 'Reminder'
human condition of spiritual 'deafpar excellence); (b) the act of re- ness' and heedlessness, few themes
membering or recollecting; (c) men- are more frequently stressed in the
tioning or repeating something; and Koran tIlan our uniquely individual
(d) even more specifically, the pro- responsibility for constantly 'rememcess of 'invoking or prayerfully rebering' God and 'mentioning' or
citing (whether silentIy or in audible invoking the divine Names, not simchanting or rhythmic song) tIle diply through the prescribed forms of
vine Names, tIlose archetypal Atritual prayer, but at every moment
tributes or Qualities of tIle all-en- of life: "...remember God while standcompassing divine Essence that are ing, and sitting, and (lying) on your
Inade manifest tIlfough the Spirit in sides, .. " (4:103, 33:191), "and rememcreation and 'returned' to their di- ber your Lord in your soul, humbly
vine Source tllfough our individual and in awe.. .in the morning and in
the evening... " (7:205), ".. ,and reacts of prayer and recollection.
Thus from the divine perspec- member/mention your Lord, whentive, tIle Koran portrays all of mani- ever you have forgotten!" 08:24).
fest existence as an ongoing, time- Thus the imperative of dhikr, in this
less Act of divine dbikr, stressing in broader sense of all awareness, all
particular the instantaneous, ever- recollection and realization of the
renewed repetition of that creative divine Presence, extends far beyond
tIle dozens of explicit Koranic referprocess of divine Self-manifestation:
God begins the creation, and tllen ences to include ultimately evelY
He repeats it again, and to Him you facet of the practical spiritual role of
are all returned (30:11). According to the Koran, the earlier divine revelations, and the divine messengers,
the Koranic account of the preteachers and spiritual guides who
eternal Covenant of Adam and all
souls with God (at 7:174), all human are the present living embodiments
beings were originally aware of that of this divine 'Reminder'. The very
Reality and constitutive relationship essence of this inner movement of
'remembrance', and tIle hue goal of
tllfough tlleir common root in the
divine Spirit: Remember God's blesshuman existence, is the soul's coning on you-all by which He bound stant 'returning' from tlle transient
you, when you said: "We hear and forms and events and 'tests' of this
we obey!", and be mindful of God... world to their true realities (the
(5:7). so in reality, all the realms of divine 'Names') and meanings in the
'unseen world' (al-ghayb) or the
existence and experience alike are
'next life' (al-akhira) of the Spirit.
the constantly repeated divine 'Signs'
(ayaO and archetypal 'Likenesses' And the inner, spiritual focus of that
(amthal) constituting God's creative movement is of course most clearly
Act of Remembrance: "We shall show reflected in the nearly intangible
them Our Signs on the horizons and states and rhythms of traditional
in their souls, until it becomes clear Islamic music (including lyric poto them that Hu [tlle divine Essence] etry). Within tllat practical spiritual
17
SUFI
Remembrance and Repetition: Spiritual Foundations of Islamic Art
context it becomes easy to recognize boIs of the 'Other World' (the 'Garthe inseparable connections between dens', fountains and flowing water,
each of the Islamic arts, as well as the celestial 'banquet', the divine
their integral ties to the wider com- 'Court', and birds, greenery, fruits
plexes of the local Islamic humani- and vegetal life of every sort); and
ties and ritual in every domain of (c) the mysterious divine order of
the heavens, celestial bodies, the
pre-modern life.
From that comprehensive four elements and the geometric and
metaphysical perspective, it is hardly mathematical patterns underlying
surprising that the ongoing creative their creation and harmonious comexpressions of tlns same process of binations. The third basic aesthetic
spiritual 'reminding' throughout the feature reflecting the Koranic
later Islamic arts and humanities have model-and again in the musical,
been profoundly influenced by the visual and literary arts alike-is the
aesthetic model of the
Koran on many different levels. Eventually the religiously
and ritually central
role of the Koran in
Islamic life helped to
mold tlle implicit canons and ideals of
aesthetic expression
and appreciation
alike in at least the
following fundamental ways. First and
perhaps most fundamentally, on a very
basic formal and
structural level, each
of the Islamic arts
(whether musical,
visual or literary) has
typically come to
reflect the Koran's
distinctive musical
qualities of rhythm
and constantly interwoven symphonic
repetition and subtle
elaboration of its
central themes. Second, and even essentially contemplative aim of each
more obviously, the concrete selec- of these artistic forms: what is essention of 'visual iconography,' of tlle tial in these arts is always what goes
basic themes and formal elements on inside each viewer or auditor, the
represented in the Islamic visual arts mysterious inner shift in awareness
from tlle very earliest period, has from the sensible material, temporal
continued to be drawn from the forms in 'this world' Cal-dunya) to
three basic symbolic families of vi- their transcendent Source and Realsual images of .tbe divine Presence, ity among the archetypal divine
of the transcendent Reality revealed Names. In this respect, as we have
through all the appearances of this already mentioned, tlle endlessly
world, that constantly recur in the varied musical forms of dhikrKoran itself: namely, (a) tlle Arabic . whether chanted, sung, or with more
calligraphy of the divine 'Words' "elaborate instrumental accompanitllemselves; (b) the paradisiac syrn- ment-most clearly illustrate the 're-
18
creation' of essential Koranic structures and intentions that takes more
palpable form in the visual or literary arts.
The fourth essential principle
of traditional Islamic aesthetics, follOWing from its contemplative ainl
(and likewise clearly mirroring its
Koranic mode!), is the assumption of
the actively transformational or 'Par- _
ticipatorj nature of the spiritual
relationship between the 'creator'
(or performer) and their 'audience'.
An art whose purpose is the movement from 'this
world' to the
next,
from
spiritual unconsciousness to a
heightened
awareness of
the divine SWrit
and the particular divine Attributes and
Actions constituting all our
experience, is
not likely to
work in a passive or undemanding fashion. Such a
radically spiritual and participatory conception forces us
to enter a very
different world
from the widespread contemporary' notions
of the artist's
work as some kind of mediatic 'production' (whether ideC?logical or
economic) or simply as another
distracting 'entertainment'. As preeminently with tlle Koran itself, the
adequate appreciation of any of the
classical forms of Islamic art inevitably requires us to cross (or at least
temporarily erase). the imagined
boundaries between what modem
culture has come to construe as
separate realms of religious, aesthetic, ethical, intellectual, personal
and communal actiVity and experience. In all honesty, few of us today
Issue 47
James W. Morris
are really used to thinking of-much
less actually living-embroidery, or
weaving, or gardening or everyday
conversation and storytelling as integral acts of prayer. One striking
indicator of this very different understanding of the spiritual role of both
'artist' and audience in traditional
Islamic cultures is that the closest
expression one could find for the
humanities or fine arts in many
Islamicate languages, adabiyat is
simply the plural of adab, a term
that could be very roughly translated
as "the spiritually and ethically appropriate attitude and its harmonious expression in right action in
each particular situation.' From this
point of view, the very act of artistic
creation and appreciation necessarily requires an unsettling and demanding kind of inner surrender,
before one can discover the underlying peace of the deeper, divine
harmony to which it leads: in fact
those two inseparable aspects of this
expe~ence of the artist's transforming intention--contemplative 'surrender' and the resulting spiritual
'peace'-together are the original
literal meaning of the Arabic word
'islam'.
et another fundamental feature
Y
of the traditional Islamic arts
and humanities-implicit in each of
~
the points mentioned above-was
the typical anonymity of their creators and the pervasiveness of those
cultural forms precisely among the
most 'popular' and 'uneducated' elements of society. (As a visible
emblem .. of this reality that once
encompassed every area of social
and communal life, one need only
think of the countless masterpieces
of carpets and textiles woven by
women from the most diverse tribal
~d village settings:) One striking
indication of the' deeper truth of the
Koranic perspective is the way that
the actual concrete realization of
these essential spiritual virtues,
whether in the 'arts' or any other
area of human life, seems to have
remarkably little to do with the formal
learning and 'official' religious ideologies of the past or present.
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SUFI
The Arabic language has a
singularly expressive term, il;Jsan,
for describing this unique God-given
capacity for actually perceiving, and
then bringing into existence, what is
beautiful-and at the same time truly
good: a single word conveys the
inner unity of that living awareness.
In tl1e Koran, that rare spiritual virtue is connected above all to God's
special love for the prophets or the
most accomplished saints, in a way
that may inevitably seem far removed from our own ordinary, socially constructed conceptions of
either good or beauty. But in a
famous Prophetic l;Jadith that is still
Widely used as a sort of catechism
in many parts of the Islamic world
today, Mu1)ammad describes the true
nature of ihsan in terms that clearly
suggest the most characteristic pIjnciples of Islamic art: the harmonious
marriage of aesthetic, ethical and
intellectual perceptions and demands
within their unifying spiritual Source
and Aim.
The l;Jadith itself recounts the
Messenger's replies to three questions posed by a mysterious whiterobed stranger, who he eventually
identifies for his companions as the
angel "Gabriel, who came to teach
the people their Religion" (Din, the
,primordial relationship between the
soul and its Creator). Nothing more
clearly highlights the culminating and
guiding role of aesthetic perception
and creation-and the essentially
spiritual understanding of the artist's
activity-Within this tradition. The
stranger's first two questions are
about the intellectual and ethicoritual dimensions of religion, which
the Prophet answers by summariz. ing the objects of faith and the
essential religious obligations of
monotheism, prayer, charity and
fas~g. Then Gabriel asks him "What
is il;Jsan?", the perception and realization of what is truly beautiful and
good. Mu1)ammad's reply is usually
translated as "To serve God as though
you see Him; and even if you did
not see Him, surely He sees you."
But the last part of his reply can also
be translated even more revealin°gly:
"...and if you are not, then you do
see Him..." This art has accomplished
its purpose when its viewer (or
listener) disappears in the contemplation of that divine Beauty.
T
he Islamic arts and humanities
have their genesis, in every
cultural and social setting, in the
ongoing spiritual obligation to communicate the primordial message of
the Koran (including that of all the
earlier prophets and messengers) in
ways that can effectively touch and
transform the lives and souls of each
human being. From that perspective,
the recorded teachings of the Prophet
and the Imams (including the l;Jadith
we have just recounted) ~re really
the first Islamic exemplars of that , .
necessarily ongoing creative process'
of teaching and transformation. An
awareness of the fundamental spiri-tual necessity of that process, and of
its indispensable preconditions at
any time, suggests rather different
perspectives and agendas from those
so loudly and vociferously proclaimed by the modem 'defenders'
(and detractors) of religion.
Another way of opening up
those forgotten perspectives is to
reflect more deeply on just what it
was that enabled the master of Shiraz
to compress everything we have
discussed-and so much more-into
these few lines:
The Musician/Composer of
Love has a wondrous
instrument and song:
The impression of each chord
(S)he strikes l has its way
to a Place.
May the world never be with
out the lament of lovers-Such a beautifully harmonious
and joy-giving melody2
it has!
Notes
1. Also: "each veil(S)he removes/sets up...
2. AlsQ: 'intention' and 'air, atmosphere'.
19